Feb. 11, 1904: The Henry B. Hyde, the largest ship built in Maine at the time, runs aground in a gale off Cape Henry, Virginia. The 268-foot, fully rigged, three-masted sailing vessel is recovered, but sinks permanently nearly eight months later.

Workers trying to salvage the vessel after the initial shipwreck manage to get it afloat, but the ship breaks loose and becomes stranded again south of Dam Neck Mills Lifesaving Station in Virginia on Sept. 22, and salvage efforts come to a halt on Oct. 2.

The ship was built in 1884 by Flint & Chapman in Bath for the San Francisco-based California Shipping Co. It became a coal carrier in 1898.

Joseph Owen is a retired copy desk chief of the Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal and board member of the Kennebec Historical Society. He can be contacted at: jowen@mainetoday.com.


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